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Seminar promotes inclusive education - Volume 2 Issue 19: Disability News and Information Service for India

Seminar promotes inclusive education

DNIS News Network - A seminar organised by the National Centre for
Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) on 'Mainstreaming education
for disabled students' was held on September 17 in New Delhi.

A recently released country-wide survey on the enrolment of disabled children
in India's educational institutions revealed that only a fraction of them obtain
admission, impelling rights activists to present a draft plan for including
them in the educational mainstream and curbing discrimination.

The participants, including disability rights activists, educationists and
government functionaries, called for a paradigm shift in priorities. The speakers
largely agreed that a major step forward would be made if special education
was be shifted from the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment to
the Human Resource Development ministry.

The survey results show India's education system currently has no place for
children with disabilities. The 119 universities that responded to the survey
reported the enrolment of a mere 1635 disabled students between them. Several
prestigious universities including Delhi University and premier medical college,
the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, failed even to respond. And as
far as colleges were concerned, only 679 students were admitted to the 96 colleges
from across India, which took the time to participate in the survey.

Schools displayed an even greater bias against disabled students. Only 382
children with disabilities were enrolled in the 89 schools that responded. Of
these 89 respondent schools, 18 said the existence of "special schools"
meant they did not feel obliged to admit children with disabilities.

Armed with such shocking statistics, the seminar was used to launch a draft
blueprint for inclusive education. This includes the establishment of high-powered
committees under the Central Advisory Board of Education in India (CABE), the
inclusion of disability training in the curriculum of regular school teachers,
increased and equal availability of Braille and talking books (audio-based learning
material) and a barrier-free environment for easy accessibility.

Significantly, very few schools in India currently provide such facilities.
One of the exceptions is St. Mary's Convent School in New Delhi. The school's
principal, Ms Annie Koshi told the seminar delegates that, just as most Indian
schools have introduced Information Technology (IT) in the curriculum, they
could also provide disabled-friendly furniture and other facilities such as
lifts and grab rails to accommodate such students.

Other speakers called for policy level changes, such as making educational
institutions responsible through the establishment of monitoring mechanisms.

India's 22 million disabled people continue to face neglect, despite the existence
of a slew of legal provisions to protect their rights, both at the national
and international levels. Under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution, all Indian
citizens are entitled to equal rights and protection of laws. Interestingly,
the Constitution also permits positive discrimination for disabled people. This
is of crucial importance to the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities,
Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

The Act holds the State responsible for the education of disabled persons till
the age of 18, and stipulates a 3 per cent reservation for them in all government
educational institutions.

The Government of India's ongoing 'Education For All' movement also pledges
equal education opportunities for all children, including the disabled, even
though it is not enforced. As the NCPEDP survey shows, the ground reality remains
dismal.

Samuel Mani, who has cerebral palsy, is employed in the IT sector. He spoke
passionately of his struggle to establish himself as a schoolchild. He was moved
to a normal school from a special one, due to the feeling of isolation it engendered.
Although he sometimes found the transition difficult, he values the experience
it gave him: "Normal schools and colleges teach you about normal lives
-- a life which we all have to live. The main thing is to be seen by other people."

Apart from the lack of education at the elementary level, disabled people are
later barred from obtaining higher education as well. Educationist S.C. Handa,
who uses technology to help the hearing impaired, told the delegates: "There
are a lot of seats available, but we can't educate the disabled first of all
at the primary and secondary level."

While the speakers did not entirely discount the need for special schools,
they stressed the need to mainstream disabled children and youth in normal ones.

Special schools are viewed as artificial environments, harming both disabled
and normal children, due to the lack of exposure to each other. Poonam Natarajan,
a teacher from Chennai, spoke of the lack of standardised curriculums in special
schools. She said this is a major reason why so many students with disabilities
leave school without being equipped for future careers.

Ashish Kumar, director of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,
said some ministries had schemes to provide grants to the disabled, although
he admitted many of these fail to see the light of day thanks to bureaucracy
or sheer ignorance about their existence.

However, there were some words of encouragement from the Indian government:
Rajashekharan Pillai, Vice Chairman of the University Grants Commission, India's
apex body governing higher education, assured those assembled that schemes to
make colleges disabled-friendly were in the pipeline. We wait with bated breath
to see what will be done.